The Green Party nudged Merkel on Sunday, with party’s leader
Katrin Göring-Eckardt saying: “It's time Mrs. Merkel,”
Die Welt newspaper reported. “The Merkel faction cannot just
sit out the debate on marriage for all…I am confident that the
Irish vote will accelerate equality in Germany.”

With all the votes counted on Saturday, Ireland has become the
first nation in the world to legalize same-sex marriages by
referendum. In a historical vote Ireland has approved same-sex
marriages with 62.1 percent saying ‘Yes’ and 37.9
percent ‘No’. The total turnout was 60.5 percent.

“This is a great signal from Ireland,” said
Göring-Eckardt. “Equal love deserves equal respect.”

The Green Party’s domestic policy spokesman Volker Beck added
that the steps taken in Ireland could push Germany onto the
similar path.

“The Irish people have made it clear: the oppression of gays
and lesbians is not a Christian value,” Beck said.

The first openly gay politician on the Merkel’s ruling
center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party board Jens
Spahn responded to the Irish news with optimism.

“What the Catholic Irish can do, we can do, too … The
populace is often further along in these matters than we
think,” Welt Daily quoted him as saying.

For a decade Germany was ahead of Ireland in terms of same-sex
marriage rights. Same-sex civil partnerships were approved in
Germany with the Civil Partnership Act in 2001, while Ireland,
where homosexuality was a criminal offense until 1993, got
similar recognition only in 2010. However, Germany’s progress
does not provide same-sex couples with the same adoption rights.

Germany’s politicians recently expressed concern that some
parties are making it difficult to move forward with full
legalization of same-sex marriages.

Minister of Justice Heiko Maas from the Social Democratic Party
(SPD) was one of the politicians to express criticism, stating
that it is “difficult to achieve” any progress in a
coalition with the CDU.

However, the deputy of the Free Democratic Party (FDP)
Chairperson Katja Suding said the SPD was actually not looking to
extend same-sex marriage rights, but instead was hiding behind
CDU’s position.

“It was actually the conservative ruling party, who wanted to
extend the marriage law out of conviction and so has not been
spared the risk of a referendum in Ireland,” Sudkurier
newspaper quoted Suding as saying.